Factbox - Wall St. and commodity risk: JPMorgan falls in 2014

As Wall Street's biggest banks report quarterly earnings this week and next, many will also offer a tiny glimpse into the scale of their commodity trading activity through a measure of trading risk called VaR.

JPMorgan Chase & Co , the first to report, said on Friday its commodity markets Value-at-Risk (VaR) fell to its lowest in nine years in the first quarter of 2014 as it prepared to complete the sale of its physical commodities business. On March 19, it an announced a $3.5 billion deal to sell it to the Switzerland-based trading house Mercuria.

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Typically, Wall Street banks group their commodities revenue under the fixed income category and do not break out the sector, often leaving VaR as a key risk-reward indicator that can measure commodities exposure.